Conrad budget a study in gridlock

Sen. Kent Conrad reclaimed the Budget Committee gavel in 2007, setting out to tame the federal debt and turn staggering deficits into a surplus in five years.

But as the North Dakota Democrat rolls out the final budget of his career on Wednesday, it’s clear none of those goals has been realized. And the frustration and futility that’s marked his tenure as chairman may serve as a metaphor for what has broken and politically polarized Congress.

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The Democratic-led Senate hasn’t passed a budget blueprint since April 2009, and it won’t do so again this spring as election-year pressures consume Capitol Hill. In fact, Conrad’s budget “markup” Wednesday won’t even be a real markup because senators won’t actually offer amendments or vote.

The 10-year budget plan Conrad unveiled Tuesday is based on the so-called Bowles-Simpson deficit-reduction plan, though the chairman conceded it’s “just reality” that any real deficit work by his committee will likely be put off until after November.

In an interview with POLITICO, Conrad said he’s tried to fight through all the congressional gridlock and inaction: “I don’t spend much time being frustrated because I don’t think it does any good. I just keep plugging away to try to get done what I think is so important for the country.”

It hasn’t been for lack of effort. Conrad, who will retire at the end of this term after a quarter of a century in the Senate, has been one of Democrats’ top deficit hawks, often armed with charts and eloquent speeches as he warns colleagues about the nation’s fiscal crisis from the chamber floor.

One budget expert described him as a modern-day Paul Revere.

“He’s always been sounding the alarm,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that educates the public about the dangers of federal deficits.

But few seem to be listening to Conrad’s warnings.

The ideological divide in Congress has stymied his centrist instincts: Republicans refuse to put tax hikes on the table, and Conrad’s fellow Democrats decry any changes to entitlements, like Medicare and Social Security.

“We have an acutely polarized political system at the moment, … and it’s prevented centrists like Conrad and [former Sen.] Judd Gregg and [Sen.] Olympia Snowe — it’s a long list — from being effective,” said Alice Rivlin, who was the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Bill Clinton.

Conrad also has been torn between fealty to his party and his responsibility as budget chairman to pass an annual spending blueprint out of his committee — something required by law.